Cultivate inner resilience with a gentle, trauma-informed approach to working somatically with chronic stress, balancing the nervous system, and nurturing body-mind-spirit vitality and well-being.
About Somatic Resilience / Co-Regulating Touch
Somatic Resilience sessions utilize Co-Regulating Touch combined with Craniosacral Therapy and Thai Sen healing to offer support for chronic pain, chronic stress, and other long-term somatic and nervous system issues via an integrative body-mind-spirit approach. This work is heavily informed by Polyvagal Theory, incorporating several somatically-oriented trauma resolution models and utilizing methods and techniques developed by Kathy Kain, Stephen Terrell, and Aline LaPierre (descended from the lineage of Peter Levine’s pioneering work with trauma and Somatic Experiencing®), as well as other leaders in the field. Sessions include gentle touch work with the head, neck, spine, and joints, as well as light-touch fascially-informed bodywork with the body’s visceral systems, the vagus nerve, and other neurovascular structures throughout the body. Gentle movement-based somatic explorations, supporting key aspects of nervous system regulation and resilience, may also be incorporated into sessions.
Progressing through a series of sessions, clients learn how to work effectively with their own physiology to support and enhance long-term well-being. When your nervous system is using less energy and effort to maintain its internal balance, new possibilities for transformation and healing have space to arise naturally. Over time, one may discover that more energy-efficiency, resilience, and regulation in your nervous system can mean less time recovering from your day/week, freeing up more time and energy to enjoy the activities you love.
A Gateway To Deeper Somatic Work…
For those who have already spent considerable time exploring the inner workings of the mind and consciousness via psychotherapy, counseling, NLP-based change work, or other models for personal growth, Somatic Resilience sessions can serve as a body-based complement to other more cognitively-focused work. It offers a doorway to working with the physical aspects of the nervous system and other body systems, allowing the body to “catch up to the mind” while accelerating one’s progress along the path toward wholeness and integration of body, mind, and spirit.
For clients with highly sensitive physiologies, who are interested in Structural Integration but have had limited tolerance for bodywork in the past, this work can be the starting point that makes all the difference. By initially focusing on building capacity, regulation, and resilience within the nervous system, and discharging any trauma held somatically in the body’s various tissue layers, deeper forms of bodywork become more accessible and less activating to the nervous system.
Some Possible Outcomes…
Increased sense of sustainable calm/lightness/energy
Better emotional balance and self-regulation (i.e. the somatically-based ability to down-regulate one’s own nervous system responses to stress and chronic stressors)
Naturally deeper, more restorative rest and sleep
Reduction of chronic jaw tension, headaches, neck stiffness, or various other somatic signs of chronic stress and sympathetic nervous system (SNS) over-activation
Improved sense of connection and rapport with one’s body, breath, heart, nervous system, digestive system, immune system, or other somatic aspects of self
An increase in overall body-level capacity to more easily manage the ups-and-downs of day-to-day life and work stresses, without feeling as overwhelmed or exhausted
Marla has experience working with…
Chronic pain, stress, fatigue, anxiety, and nervous system issues
Autoimmune, thyroid/endocrine, and digestive issues (in collaboration with your functional medicine practitioner)
Aspects of shock trauma and/or early trauma that are held somatically in the body (in collaboration with your therapist or mental health practitioner)
Given her extensive background with bodywork and movement, Marla is also able to discern when a chronic somatic issue may be better addressed in conjunction with more structurally-oriented work, to aid in more efficient movement toward your goals
Options for Series-Based & Ongoing Sessions
Somatic Resilience / Co-Regulating Touch sessions work a bit differently than our more structurally-based bodywork offerings. Series are often open-ended and work at your individual pace to move toward your goals for resilience, vitality, and well-being. Each body is unique and we will work with you to develop the best program for your individual goals and needs. Depending on the issues you would like to work with, and the many factors that contribute to your uniqueness as an individual, session spacing and overall timelines for our work together can vary quite a bit person-to-person. If you like, this work can also be woven into a custom-tailored Structural Integration or Thai Structural Bodywork series, either as a supplement or as a key component of your personalized wellness plan.
Ready to take the next steps on your path to wellness?
For more personalized information about this unique offering focused on cultivating and enhancing your innate somatic resilience, or to schedule your first Somatic Resilience / Co-Regulating Touch session with Marla, feel free to reach out to us using the buttons below: